How to Wrap a Bubble in a String
The greatest case put forward for the idea that we are just one of a multitude of Universes is the Anthropic Principal. Imagine a pond in which the fish cannot conceive of the idea of life above the water. They swim in their environment, not even skimming the surface for food, or other necessity. Their eyes are downward facing, they do not know other beings, or life, could exist elsewhere because all the sense abilities are based on their limitations. The fish know only one Universe, but others exist beyond them.
Similarly, the Anthropic principle, meaning literally; Human centered, is based on the observation that people have limited ability to sense any other dimensions. It is also partly based on string theory, which connects what is known of particles, matter, and their interactions. String theory is based on 11 dimensions of linking, and connecting by various oscillations and vibrations all forces, and all matter. The tiniest electron and the largest galaxy are thus all strung together in a theory of Everything. .
The Mulitiverse theory states that we could be in one bubble of one universe, and perhaps by worm holes, or other connecting tunnels through black holes, other Universes are beyond our own, expanding, and containing life that can contemplate itself. An infinite number of such bubbles could continually be born in on-going genesis, and still allow “stability” and permanence, as we know it.
Gravitational waves, as detected in vast space, are one tool astrophysicists hope to utilize to gain more information about the possibility of Multiverses. The new Laser Interferometer Space Antenna, LISA, will use lasers to detect gravitational waves by their effects as witnessed by interference between three distant points in space.
The greatest problem with the Mulitiverse theory is that anything based on something we cannot comprehend, sense, or verify is by definition neither provable, nor falsifiable. That is, the Mulitiverse theory may, or may not exist, just as Alice in Wonderland’s white rabbit, constantly checking his watch, may or may not exist. Somewhere on the other side of the rabbit hole, looking glass, Black hole, or Glinda Bubble, a late white rabbit perpetually searches his timepiece and GPS, for the answers to the universes’ (or Multiverses) persistent questions.
String theory is controversial because like the idea of parallel worlds, first postulated by Giordano Bruno, it is not good news to anyone who already has a comfortable view that explains what we are, and how we got here. Bruno’s ideas of parallel worlds called into question God making man the center of creation, and similarly, the Mulitiverse theory makes many uncomfortable in its enormous scope. Bruno was burned at the stake for speculating upon parallel worlds. Of course, there now is proof of exo planets, as well as our own solar system’s worlds. But multiple universes is even much more a stretch for most of us to wrap our minds around.
Perhaps, with just enough string theory to wrap it all up, weave some knots, and find a way to tie it all up, we can find just enough twine to discover even bigger questions. Most people cannot even imagine what swims in our own limited seas, much less imagine what floats beyond the bubbles, beyond the bubbles, beyond our own bubble.
